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| Tomatoes and Peppers |
My whole goal was to more efficiently keep track of the seeds I planted, their progress, and the successes and failures. Keeping track of the onion and leek growth as well as providing a detailed set of instructions on how to make a self watering planter was easy. However, when additional plants were added, it was clear that as much as I feel I eat, breathe, and sleep plants, I clearly don't have the resources to conduct meaningful experiments at this stage. Its not only that I lack space and a uniform set up, but also because I can't let things die and insist on moving extra seedlings instead of cutting them.
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| Snapdragons and Marigolds |
Self Watering Seed Starter for Onions and Leeks
This worked very well for the most part for taking up water and transferring it to the roots. The only problem I had was that when I tried to transplant the onions and leeks, the roots had penetrated the fabric at the bottom of the tray. The onions seem to come apart better than the leeks, but hopefully, this didn't do too much damage. To free them, I pretty much drenched them in water and jostled them free with my fingers and a plastic fork.
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| Leek roots growing through fabric bottom |
Regarding Seed Starting Equipment
I tried a serious upgrade to my lights this year by frugally purchasing some bench lights and a shelf unit in order to increase my growing capacity. I also bought another "dome greenhouse" because I needed another heating mat and it was cheaper to purchase the entire kit instead of just the mat. I made some modifications to them by poking holes in the lid to increase ventilation. In addition to this, I experimented with different seed pots which included raiding all the paper towel rolls at work to make a double layered pot and also using store bought 9 x 9 cells. These plastic cells were pretty crappy. I would use them again only if I grew the same thing in all 9. The different growth rates of different plants made it difficult as I wanted to move plants away from the dome as soon as they germinated and this meant changing the temperature. Often times it seemed that the seeds that still needed to germinate were slowed due to the temperature change.
Either way, I would probably make the cardboard pots because they are cheap (extremely) and they biodegrade (hurray!). Plus, any cells that I became suspicious of carrying some fatal fungus was thrown into the worm bin ( Cornell Vermicompost Study on Dampening-Off Pathogens ). Which leads me to talk about soil media. I really like the Espoma potting soil which I used to start them and then transferred the seedlings into a larger pot with a half and half mixture of additional Espoma potting soil and finished worm compost from my own worms. I believe the combination of more room and the worm compost have benefited the plants much more so than just by adding just potting soil. Of course, since I can't do in depth chemical analysis of the plants (nor do I want to sacrifice them), I really don't have any data to back this up.
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| Sad Rudbeckia- its been this size for weeks |
Regarding Dampening-Off
My opinion of this hasn't change. It is a very frustrating organism and I can really see how many gardeners blast the crap out of everything with fungicides. Since I am trying to do things as organically as possible, I really don't want to use them. I doesn't mean I won't ever use non-organic means to treat my plants (Miracle gro still is pleasant to use for instant growth), but I want to try to produce the best results possible using a combination of homeopathic means (lol). I read a paper recently (Fish Emulsion and Dampening-Off) about the use of fish emulsion as a soak before adding seeds (note- I also TRIED to fertilize with this liquid emulsion on a 2 week cycle starting 2 weeks from germination). I was too impatient to wait several days (study said that advantages of this soak were gained after a waiting period). I did soak my cardboard seeds and it did smell for a bit, but it was when I already added the seeds. I also used a chamomile tea soak and a cinnamon dusting over the surface of the plants. Does any of this really do anything? I have no significant data to support it. For all I know, the fan has been keeping most of these organisms from taking hold. I still lost plants, some rosemary, peppers, etc. but I have just accepted it and remove the infected cells as quickly as possible.
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| Butterfly Weed and Marigolds |
It really has come to my attention this year as I attempt to grow more difficult plants that I need to start seeds that require a specific environment together. I didn't realize how hot the environment needs to be for eggplant to germinate and for continous growth until this year. Of course, peppers are pretty slow to so if I can grow these types together in their own dome and set a side a specific tray that experiences high heat both from a mat and light (or some other arrangement) I think it will increase the yield. This increase in temperature has made it hard to keep up on watering without stressing the plant but I have done my best. What would be awesome is if I could get my hands on those systems in grocery stores that are self watering. I am sure I would have issues hooking up water to it and really just getting my hands on it, but maybe I'll stumble upon this.
My coworker has helped me tweak my excel spread sheet, and I have tested it with this most recent batch of herb seeds planted. I have tried to keep track of the soil and air temperature using a small meat thermometer, but I guess I wouldn't rule out using fish tank monitors.
There needs to be several tweaks until I determine if the data I am gathering will help me in the future. Another database I have been accessing is NOAA weather archives which helps me understand what "early spring" means when planting seeds outdoors. Its very vague terminology. As far as March goes, it was colder this year than last, however, spinach, radish, and peas are coming up that were planted on St. Patrick's day.
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| Bee Balm :) |
